Product Details

• Actors: Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far, Flyboys
• Number of discs: 3
• Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: June 24, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0019N5ANE
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,642 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Battle of Britain
Featuring a "big stellar cast" (Variety), including Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Michael Redgrave, Robert Shaw, Susannah York and Edward Fox, Battle of Britain is a spectacular retelling of a true story that shows courage at its inspiring best. Few defining moments can change the outcome of war. But when the outnumbered Royal Air Force defied insurmountable odds in engaging the German Luftwaffe, it may well have altered the course of history!

A Bridge too Far An epic film that "re-creates in stunning detail one of the most disastrous battles of World War II" (The Hollywood Reporter), A Bridge Too Far is a spectacular war picture. Painstakingly recreated on actual battlefield locations and boasting a remarkable cast that includes Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Sir Laurence Olivier and Robert Redford, A Bridge Too Far accurately recaptures the monumental scope, excitement and danger behind one of the biggest military gambles in history. In September 1944, flush with success after the Normandy Invasion, the Allies confidently launched Operation Market Garden, a wild scheme intended to put an early end to the fighting by invading Germany and smashing the Reich's war plants. But a combination of battlefield politics, faulty intelligence, bad luck and even worse weather led to disaster beyond the Allies' darkest fears.

Flyboys
World War I aviation action gets an impressive digital upgrade in Flyboys, a welcome addition to the "dogfight" sub-genre that includes such previous war-in-the-air films like Hell's Angels, Wings, and The Blue Max. While those earlier films had the advantage of real and genuinely dangerous flight scenes (resulting, in some cases, in fatal accidents during production), Flyboys takes full (and safe) advantage of the digital revolution, with intensely photo-realistic recreations of WWI aircraft, authentic period structures, and CGI environments requiring a total of 850 digital effects shots, resulting in an abundance of amazing images, many of them virtually indistinguishable from reality. Unfortunately, the film's technical achievement is more impressive than its screenplay, which conventionally and predictably tells the fact-based story, set in France in 1916, of the daring young pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, a pioneering French air-combat unit that welcomed American enlistees prior to the United States' entry into the war.
There's a familiar cliché to match every thrilling scene of aerial combat, but director Tony Bill manages to keep it all interesting, from the romance between a young American maverick (James Franco) and a pretty French girl (newcomer Jennifer Decker) to the exciting action in the air, which includes a stock variety of heroes (many of them composites of real-life WWI pilots) and an intimidating villain known only as "The Black Falcon," whose Fokker Dr-1 triplane (one of many in the film) recalls the exploits of German "ace of aces" Manfred von Richtofen, the dreaded "Red Baron" of legend. With impeccable production values that will impress even the most nit-picking aviation buffs, Flyboys (like Superman Returns and Apocalypto, also released in 2006) was also one of the first feature films to be shot with Panavision's state-of-the-art Genesis digital cameras, resulting in beautiful images that meet or exceed the visual nuance of film. Flyboys also benefits from painstaking attention to physical detail, making it easier to forgive its shortcomings as a generic and formulaic slice of romanticized history. So while some viewers may have wished for a more realistic and grown-up depiction of the Lafayette Escadrille, it's safe to say that Flyboys will be thrilling its target audience for many years to come. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two 70's films and modern Hollywood WW1 blockbuster, December 30, 2008

By	James Laumann "computer semi-nerd" (Arlington, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been a fan of war films for longer than I can remember. Two of my all time favorites are "A Bridge Too Far" and "Battle of Britain". These two films are from the decade of the 1970's. Their attention to detail ranks 4 on a scale of 5 (1-worse to 5-great), which helps the veiwer to understand what people looked and acted like during WW2. Of course, the all star cast for both films helps also. These two films have action aplenty. "Bridge Too Far" is the story of the near success of Operation Market Garden, the attempt by the Allies to end the war before Christmas 1944. "Battle of Britain" is just that, the story of the Battle of Britain in the late summer/early fall of 1940, when Nazi Germany tried to bomb Churchill's Great Britain into submission. Both films are on the mark, historically, and provide plenty of suspense.

"Flyboys" is about the volunteer American air unit "Lafayette Escadrille" during WW1, when the United States was officially neutral. Even though alot of the air action is computer created, the film gives a very good telling of how young Americans wanted to fight Imperial Germany and stop "the Hun" before he took over all of Europe.

The Blu-Ray copies are excellent, with vivid colors and no defects.

If you want to watch a war film on your Blu-Ray player, here is three which you will enjoy.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars War Classics, April 13, 2009

By	Lawrence Frazer "Movie Critic" (Vancleave, Ms USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had seen all but Flyboys before and greatly enjoyed them. I did so again on Blu Ray (even better). I watched Flyboys for the first time this weekend. This is a pretty darn good movie. Kind of sad at the end, no, make that downright sad at the end. Kind of like Titanic was only different. Still, it is very well done.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Am I missing Something?, May 12, 2009

By	Jeffrey C. Roland (La) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can buy this 3 movie bundle for $98 or I can purchase them separately for less than $60. Sounds like a rip off.